Neil Hughes
Six years ago today, Apple cofounder Steve Jobs passed away. The company's current CEO, Tim Cook, reflected the occasion on Thursday with a quote from the iconic visionary.
"Make something wonderful, and put it out there," were the words of Jobs heard last month before the unveiling of the iPhone X.
Cook quoted them again on Thursday on his Twitter account, adding: "Remembering Steve today. Still with us, still inspiring us."
Jobs passed away on Oct. 5, 2011 at age 56, after a long bout with cancer.
The words of Jobs echoed through his namesake theater last month, when Cook and the rest of Apple unveiled the iPhone 8 and iPhone X. At the time, Cook said it was only fitting that Jobs should help to open his own theater.
Remembering Steve today. Still with us, still inspiring us. "Make something wonderful, and put it out there." pic.twitter.com/7aOCPkwU0U
— Tim Cook (@tim_cook) October 5, 2017
"Steve meant so much to me, and so much to all of us," Cook said at the iPhone X event. "There's not a day that goes by that we don't think about him. Memories have especially come rushing back as we prepared for today and this event. It's taken some time, but we can now reflect on him with joy, instead of sadness. Steve's spirit and timeless philosophy on life will always be the DNA of Apple.
The full quote from Jobs, heard at the opening of the Steve Jobs Theater, follows:
There are lots of ways to be as a person. And some people express their deep appreciation in different ways. But one of the ways that I believe people express their appreciation to the rest of humanity is to make something wonderful, and put it out there. And you never meet the people, you never shake their hands, you never hear their story or tell yours. But somehow in the act of making something with a great deal of care and love, something's transmitted there. And it's a way of expressing to the rest of our species, our deep appreciation. So we need to be true to who we are. And remember what's really important to us. That's what's going to keep Apple, Apple — is if we keep us, us.
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19 Comments
It's too bad people just want to bitch back to Tim's tweet about how he's apparently "ruining" everything Steve built. Lets remember Steve for who he is and what he did when we was here rather than sit and think we know what he would have done if he were still here running Apple...if he would even still be running Apple, who knows! People on social media are just flat out mean. I guess its all too easy to be tough behind the keyboard. I'm glad I don't really participate in social media much. Some people just don't have a single clue what its like to run one of the largest companies in the world.
I've read and watched everything I could find that was written about Steve -- and none of it seems to capture him or his essence. Each one focuses on a single aspect without understanding the whole and produces a distorted caricature.
When I watch Steve himself or read his words I see an extremely complex person who remained deeply thoughtful, caring and genuine -- and passionate about his role in life. And, it appears to me that his genius derived from the sum total of all of that.
There will never be another Steve... Never.
When I read the book Becoming Steve Jobs, I came away thinking it was a fair appraisal of the complexion of a person whose every thought, every quote, and every decision has been scrutinized for several decades. I had the fortune to spend 26 years, beginning in 1985, working in software start-ups, constantly under the invent-or-die paridigm in which someone like a Steve Jobs comes to stardom. I worked for the same CEO in three consecutive companies throughout that 26 year period; probably one of the longest running continuous partnerships in the history of the fast-paced and ever changing technology industry. He's a UC Berkley grad, and a Harvard MBA, and is a brilliant and driven entrepreneur and CEO, who grew up in Palo Alto, by the way, just a few blocks from where Jobs lived until his death. I recall shouting matches in meetings, cold dismissals of people who were lazy in their thinking, and a relentless drive to pull us all forward into a future he often single-handedly invented. Very much a portrait that might be applied to Steve Jobs. And yet, one of the most caring and human people I've ever known; a Buddist, a deep thinker, and someone who would go out of his way to serve his employees, beyond the workplace. To anyone on the receiving end of his intense and intellectual scrutiny, I can see them walking away dismissing him as nothing more than an egotistical asshole. But that's far from the truth understood by those of us who knew him for decades. I imagine the reputation of Jobs was formed in the same manner, and wholly undeserved of the actual man.